JOSH HOMME Is Open To A KYUSS Reunion

Are we finally gonna get a Kyuss reunion? Nothing is set in stone at the moment, but former Kyuss guitarist Josh Homme said in a recent interview with Kyuss World founder Nathan Lawver that it’s a possibility – if only to set the record straight and end Kyuss on a good note.

“I don’t know. I just feel like the punctuation of Kyuss — it was such a perfect little unit, and it ended the way it should. And was totally in support of what was happening in Kyuss Lives! and things like that. It was just [that] there were some tricky things that were pulled… I think it’s good for people to know what happened.

“But it always left me with a strange feeling, because it’s, like, you wanna set things right. And plus I just don’t think it’s good… There’s no reason to hold on to anything negative. I don’t have negative feelings about anybody. None of that stuff matters. So, yeah, it’s possible.”

Kyuss‘ lineup included Homme, bassists Nick Oliveri (Mondo Generator, ex-Queens of the Stone Age) and Scott Reeder (ex-Goatsnake, ex-The Obsessed), vocalist John Garcia (Slo Burn, Hermano, John Garcia), and drummer Brant Bjork (Stöner, Brant Bjork). The band has never reunited, though in 2010 we got close when Garcia, Oliveri, and Bjork formed Kyuss Lives!. A lawsuit between Homme and the band over trademarks disrupted activities and Kyuss Lives! turned into Vista Chino, who broke up in 2014.

Bjork said in a 2021 interview that he’d reached out to Homme about potentially doing something with Kyuss again, but he never got a response. Which is strange considering Homme said in a 2020 interview that he’d be down for a reunion.

“As far as a Kyuss reunion happening, that was my attempt at not necessarily getting the band back together but at the very least developing some communication with Josh,” said Bjork at the time.

“And it seemed at first that it might be time and [we] actually [might] be able to connect. But it didn’t happen. That was months and months and months ago, so it’s clear that it’s not gonna move forward. And who knows? Maybe he puts Kyuss together and puts his own version together or whatever. I don’t know what he’s gonna do. We’ll have to just see.”

Homme‘s 2020 comments were: “I suppose at the end of the day, [Kyuss Lives!] didn’t need a blessing [to play Kyuss music], but I was giving it to ’em. I want those guys to do well. And they were playing Kyuss music for a generation that had only heard of it and never heard it. I didn’t see the harm in that. But trying to usurp it and take it away was just like dirty pool.

“The problem with all that stuff is that in a lawsuit or something like that, everyone loses; everyone looks bad. People that have loved Kyuss for so long go, ‘Fuck these guys.’ And that’s terrible. That’s why I say it’s so fragile. That’s why I say I’ve always wanted to err on the side of don’t finger bang the ice sculpture; it’s gonna break. If you don’t touch it, it’s just classic. But you don’t punctuate the end of a band with a lawsuit. Those things are tragic, and they’re awful. And then they lost, because, of course, you lose when you do things like that. But that damage is awful.

“But to be honest with you, and to answer your question, there have been times I thought it cannot end that way, and the only real way to end it correctly now would be to play. And because they sort of perverted the punctuation and they knocked the wing off this beautiful dragon that’s an ice sculpture, and the only way to put the motherfucking wing back on would be to [play again].

“I have thought about this, especially in the last few years, to do something special, and even to make up for that mistake of Brant and, unfortunately, John, to make up for it. [I thought we should] play and give all the money away. Like, play for the fans — cover your costs and make it five bucks. Figure out a way to be, like, this is how the punctuation will end the sentence of this band. Because it was never about money — it never was about money. It never was about fame, and when it felt like that was the move they were making, I was so sad.”